The Asheran quivered.

  “Under whose authority did you attack the Ark?”

  Tears streamed from the seren’s good eye. “I am Seren Keevar Endal. I am a dead man.”

  Jeremiah put his foot on the man’s midsection and flattened him to the cot. The prisoner gasped for breath. “I am Jeremiah Jordan, agent of the Redeemers, servant of the holy angels themselves. I have been charged by the voices of God almighty to extract information from you, and I will do just that. Whether there is anything left of you or not when I am done is entirely dependent on your cooperation.”

  It took the better part of an hour, but a brief visit from Leliel to announce that the next prisoner was ready for interrogation was what changed the man’s mind. “Do you require assistance, Agent Jeremiah?” was all she had said.

  Seren Keevar Endal opened the gates to a flood of intel.

  Jeremiah heard the command structure of an Asheran leviathan, through whom their orders had been routed, and the names of officers both above and below Keevar Endal in the chain of command.

  “How did you find the Ark?” Jeremiah demanded. “How are you finding your way through Mizraim space so easily?”

  “Jericho aids us. We have a contract.”

  “Give me a name.” But Jeremiah knew the answer before the Asheran confirmed it.

  Caleb Gavet.

  Jeremiah seethed.

  “Khapiru!” Jeremiah thundered, setting the disassembled cyborg screaming for mercy. But his ire was turned elsewhere just then. “Caleb Gavet! You have betrayed your masters, the saviors of all humanity.”

  For the first time in his life, Jeremiah wished he knew a stronger epithet than khapiru.

  17

  “There you go again, using that word. What’s it even mean? It’s not like you can just stick a label on something and make it be what you say it is. Words mean things, but that one doesn’t mean what everyone thinks it means. You say it, and you want it to mean villain. I hear it and think: there’s a guy who’s got his act together.”

  Caleb Gavet, protesting an MNN reporter’s use of the term “monopolist”

  TRIANGULUM GALAXY

  Weeks in the Sentinel brig were pretty much as horrible as Caleb would have imagined. They gave him three meals a day and left him alone. All alone. With not a single thing to do. He couldn’t see his kids. He couldn’t kiss Ayelet in the morning. He couldn’t even have Rebekah during his lunch break—in fact, he hoped she’d escaped somehow. He’d asked a female Sentinel for a conjugal visit, and she’d ignored him.

  He was pretty sure there was a case to be made for boredom as a form of torture. Was it possible to die of boredom? Could sheer tedium so suffuse his soul that it would wither away and rot to nothing? Because he was pretty sure that was happening. He’d called the medical officer over to discuss it, but she’d been no more receptive.

  “Total lack of activity could be detrimental to my health,” he’d told her.

  The woman, Suzuki, shrugged. “So get some exercise. You’ve room to move around in there.”

  “Indeed, yes. Exactly what I was thinking. If you’d come in here and remove your clothes, I could solve two problems at once. Sexual aerobics would alleviate both boredom and the need for exercise. Besides, if I don’t fuck someone soon, I might actually go totally off rotation.”

  Suzuki glared at him. “Fine. Then go fuck yourself.”

  And she’d stormed off.

  Pity.

  And so, when Rachel Jordan finally came back to see him, he was doing pushups. Which meant he’d probably already slipped off rotation. He blamed the doctor.

  He hopped up the moment Rachel came in. “Did Suzuki send you in here to help me with my problem?”

  “What problem, Caleb?”

  He sighed. “Guess not. What brings the illustrious and ever-nebulous Rachel Jordan to my humble office?”

  Rachel paced in front of his cell, as if unsure what to say.

  So he let her walk. Caleb tried to use his cybernetic eyes to peel away the layers of her clothing and examine the soft flesh beneath. It still didn’t work. The shielding on the nanomesh blocked his scans. Not that the formfitting Sentinel uniforms left that much to the imagination to begin with. One good thing he had to hand them.

  “What is it you want, Caleb?” Rachel said at last.

  Caleb couldn’t quite suppress a grin. If she only knew. And why not tell her? “At the moment, I want to bend you over the cot and have a wild romp with you. After that, I’d say a coffee, a massage, and then a hot shower. Plus, I’d like to be the richest man in the universe.”

  Rachel ran a hand through her hair, apparently neither amused nor perturbed by his innuendo. Which might be a good sign.

  “I guess you don’t get the news in here, do you?”

  No, much to his disdain. Caleb chewed his thumb. She’d obviously come to him for a reason, and sooner or later she’d spill it. Why not drag it on as long as possible? This was the best entertainment he’d had in days. He considered asking her to turn around so he could examine her backside in as much detail as the front.

  “The Ark—the angels—they destroyed an Asheran fleet. The Asherans tried to fight, and it went very poorly for them. The angels crushed them in mere minutes, Caleb.”

  Huh. That was pretty much the worst possible outcome to this whole damn situation. First Apollo—who Caleb was pretty sure was an Asheran spy—led the Conglomerate into an alliance with Asherah, and now the Confederation was being massacred.

  Caleb hated being on the losing side.

  “You must have some sympathies with the Asherans. The Conglomerate was working with them. Was that your doing, Caleb?”

  He shrugged. Under duress, but she hardly needed to know Apollo had blackmailed him and cowed him into submission. Didn’t sound very manly. “Largely.”

  “Because of your eyes?”

  Ah. He should have figured that doctor would scan him for cybernetics sooner or later. That was the problem with being in Sentinel custody. It was a lot harder to disguise certain things.

  “What’s the chip in your head do, anyway?”

  Caleb chewed his thumb, buying more time. He pretty much hated other people knowing more than he did. And this woman always seemed to be fucking up his plans. His whole life, in fact.

  “It’s some kind of telepathic amplifier, isn’t it? Are you in contact with the Asherans now?”

  Telepathic amplifier? It was supposed to block telepaths from reading him, not allow them to do so across vast distances. Or that was what Apollo had said to him. Angels above, had the scientist lied to him? Son of a bitch might be reading his mind right now. Maybe not—maybe galaxies away was too far. Except … when he entered the Conduit? The Conduit carried psionic signals with no bearing on distance. So maybe he’d have to guard his thoughts from here on.

  “Let me ask you a question, Rachel. Are you even on the right side? You say the angels blew away an Asheran fleet? What else have they done? Tried to reinstitute the Days of Glory, I imagine.”

  The look on her face—the pale, haunted expression—told him all he needed to know.

  “So,” he said. “Now you fight against Asherah and the Conglomerate, the enemies of the angels. The alien beings you so fervently opposed, preached against … the creatures whose legends you tried to debunk. Now you side with them. Oh, yes, my dear. Fighting against the enemies of the angels is a lot like serving them, isn’t it? You side against humanity with our enemies.”

  Rachel stepped back until she ran into the wall behind her, shaking her head. Oh, this was too easy. She’d had all the same thoughts herself. She knew her own hypocrisy already. A little prodding, and she was forced to face it. Caleb of all people knew how uncomfortable having a light shined on one’s little secrets could be.

  “What are you going to do, Rachel? Side with them now? Submit and beg for forgiveness? Maybe they’d absolve your sins. Just wash them away.” Caleb tried not to grin at the way she cringed at that. Anyone who knew Jeremiah Jordan would. “Come on, girl. Are you ready to serve your angelic masters at long last? All you have to do is help them destroy Asherah and the Conglomerate, and they’d probably welcome you back into the fold. Well, of course, you’d probably have to follow the Commandments. Pop out a few babies.”

  “Shut up! Shut the void up, Gavet!”

  He stalked over to the edge of the smart glass. “What’s the matter? Not the future you envisioned when you began your self-righteous crusade on Gehenna? Is this not the inevitable result of your own actions? You wanted to change the universe, Dr. Jordan. Congratulations. You have. Reap the whirlwind, my girl.”

  Rachel began to tremble, then hugged herself to still it. For a moment, she looked away. Then she hit the buzzer to open his cell. “I’ll get you a shuttle and help you out of here. Maybe there’s still time to stop them … you have to get word … to Asherah.”

  Caleb had no idea if the angels could be stopped now. But since they’d probably kill him either way, it was better to die trying.

  18

  “Life is toil. Perpetuation of the species is paramount. All rewards await on the far side of death. The more the living sacrifice in life, so shall they reap the pleasures in the eternity that follows.”

  The Codex, Book of Kokabiel, on the afterlife

  TRIANGULUM GALAXY

  “What the bloody void were you thinking?” David said.

  Rachel flinched at his tone. He’d called her into the war room. Of course he’d eventually seen what she’d done on the security feeds. Caleb Gavet was long gone, and the Wheel of Law couldn’t afford to hunt him down. They were already underway back to Sentinel space to make repairs.

  “David, listen …”

  “Aye, tell me why you let a criminal, an enemy of the state, go free on my ship. Tell me why you took it upon yourself to decide he deserved a pardon instead of a trial.”

  Hot, stifling rage wafted off him like toxic gas, almost choking Rachel. She backed away a step. She needed to get a grip. She just had to make him understand that, with the angels free, they needed Asherah.

  “Gavet is a liaison to the Confederacy. Humanity will need to stand together against this new threat. The angels have declared war on life as we know it. If we don’t bury hostilities with Asherah and the Conglomerate—”

  David stalked closer, so close she could feel his breath on her face. “Bury hostilities? Have you gone completely off rotation? The angels haven’t declared war on us—Asherah has! They invaded our space. We released the angels just to keep the Conglomerate from getting hold of the Ark. Well, now the angels are here to do just that.”

  Yes. She had listened to him and unfrozen the angels. At the time, anything seemed better than letting the Conglomerate become despotic rulers of humanity.

  But she should have known she’d be trading one evil for another.

  “What if we were wrong, though?” she asked. “What if they would have been better than the angels? Or more to the point, maybe releasing them was the right decision. I don’t know. It gives us a chance, a reason to make that stand together with the rest of humanity. A chance to be reunited.”

  “These are the people who murdered my mum! Asherans have cast aside the Covenant and made monsters of themselves. They are fiends in human skin, trying to destroy everything we stand for.” He jabbed her in the shoulder. “Everything that uniform stands for! And you betrayed it!”

  “Like you’ve never done that.”

  David recoiled, and she regretted the words the instant they left her mouth. She was letting his anger poison her. She had to stay calm.

  “I did that to save you, Rach. And now you’ve betrayed me. Whatever your personal convictions, you took an oath as an officer under my command. It was not your decision to make! By all rights, I should have you thrown in the brig, Rachel.”

  She glared at him. Who the void did he think he was, threatening her? “Then do it!”

  “Don’t bloody tempt me.”

  “You’re right.” She ran a finger down the center of her uniform to unzip it. “I never should have put this damn thing on. Jail me or let me off on the next station, David. Do whatever you feel is right. So will I. But consider one thing—you believe the Asherans are evil because they’re cyborgs. But you only believe cyborgs are evil because the angels said so. Except the angels are cyborgs too. And trust me, they are just as much your enemy.”

  David shook his head sadly and spoke softly. “You are so convinced you’re right you don’t even hear yourself, Rach. We know … we know why the angels hid Eden, and it was for our protection. And still you can’t imagine the Commandments existed for a reason.”

  Rachel chuckled, though she felt no humor. “Oh, there was a reason. They wanted to control us. They wanted to stifle our potential to ensure their own rule would fester on for all eternity.”

  David sighed and stood at last, shaking his head. “You’re not leaving me much choice, are you? So be it. I accept your resignation. Consider yourself lucky that’s your only punishment.”

  Oh, she was damn lucky. She was lucky she was getting off this ship and out of this mess. She was lucky to be free of the Sentinels and the angels.

  She stormed out of the war room and found Knight waiting for her in the hall.

  “We’re leaving,” she said. “We were wrong to ever come here.” She breezed past him, down the hall.

  “I’m not leaving, Rachel.”

  She almost stumbled over her own steps, then turned to look back at him. Knight had been by her side every minute since she came to Gehenna. He was the one person she knew she could count on. How could he stay here?

  “Knight, I’m done with the Sentinels. David all but called me a criminal. They’re going to side with the damned angels.”

  Knight slowly shook his head. “You shouldn’t have released Gavet, Rachel. It wasn’t your call.”

  Rachel stood there, her mouth half open. Since when did he care about this duty shit, anyway?

  “People died capturing him,” Knight said. “And a lot more people died fighting his Asheran allies. Our brothers and sisters in arms gave up their lives to hold the line against the enemy, and you just let him go. Because he convinced you his side had a point? Don’t you think every side is always going to have a point? The only people who act without reason are psychotics, Rachel.”

  “God, this isn’t about brothers-in-arms … this is about Phoebe. You’ve fallen for her and you don’t want to leave her!”

  Knight shrugged. “I’ve known a lot of women. I’ve only loved a few.”

  “So you are in love, huh?” Rachel scoffed. Void, she should be happy for him. It was petty to be jealous. She had David … or she’d had him, until she’d let Caleb sway her.

  Knight looked away. “I don’t know. But I plan to find out. And you’re wrong. It’s about more than one person. That’s where you’ve gone off rotation, Rachel. You’re so blinded by your convictions you think you alone are fit to decide the fate of humanity—and on the small scale, your arrogance allows you to think yourself suited to decide the course for the people on this ship. But the ship has a captain, appointed by the government.”

  “You’ve changed, Knight.”

  “Yeah.”

  Warmth for her still drifted off him, but it was suffused with disappointment.

  He, the Gibbor assassin, was disappointed in her.

  And somehow that was almost as crushing as losing David. Like the weight of a neutron star pressed on her chest and she couldn’t quite suck a breath down. She wanted to tell Knight she hoped she’d see him again. She wanted to thank him for all he’d done for her. She wanted to wish him well.

  But no words would come.

  Instead, she stalked off alone down the corridor.

  They would reach a station soon, and she would leave Knight behind. She would leave David behind. The two men she cared most for had turned their backs on her. And though it tore her heart to pieces, she had to do what was right for all mankind. She had to … her chest heaved, and she fought back tears in her eyes.

  No way. She was never going to let these people see her cry.

  If she had to face the universe alone, she would. She would!

  Release me … Raziel’s voice tugged at her mind.

  Go to hell, she thought back at him.

  You do not understand hell, Dr. Jordan. Release me …

  Soon, she would be free of the angel’s constant prodding at her mind. The never-ending stream of psionic assault against her consciousness had let her sleep so little in the last weeks.

  Finally, she would be free of it all.

  19

  “It’s better to bribe regulators than apply for permits.”

  Caleb Gavet, to his assistant

  DECEMBER 16, 3096 EY — PHOENIX DWARF GALAXY

  The Flame of Heaven picked Caleb up at a way station on the outskirts of the Triangulum galaxy. The ship, a Jericho cruiser, had escaped the Sentinel assault weeks back. Apparently, the Conglomerate had hesitated to take any further action, especially since the angel attack on Asherah.

  The thought that they waited on him might have been a comfort—if it didn’t mean he would be responsible for the fate of five different megacorps. Funny how much less appealing that sounded in the midst of an intergalactic war. His every decision would lead to the loss of thousands of lives. Maybe millions.

  Caleb sighed. The moment his shuttle hatch opened, Rebekah rushed to his side.

  “Thank God you’re alive!” She threw her arms around his neck and held him.

  He patted the girl on the back. “I’m glad you made it off the Throne. How’d you manage that?”

  “Well, you know me. I’m a slippery … agile little thing.”

 

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